Yesterday we packed up at our cottage in Portree, Isle of Skye and headed norther. After this brief paragraph I'll dwell no more on Skye but we retain lots of tales untold and lots of images unshown. We got to most corners of the island and thrashed it to a foam, as Mary is fond of saying. The weather for six of the seven days we stayed was exceptionally good for any time of year, as the locals kept telling us. So we consider ourselves very lucky.
And the weather luck continues. Saturday was a gloriously sunny day as we crossed the Skye bridge and turned left for Plockton, the "Jewel of the Highlands", according to the welcome sign at the village entrance.
One of several by Mary. As Bob Carson recently reminded us, Plockton was made world famous by the BBC Scotland TV series "Hamish Macbeth". It's a tiny town at the junction of two single lane roads and on the edge of Loch Carron.
Thanks, Google Maps.
Brief stop only, as we had a long row to hoe that day. We are intent on following a route called the North Coast 500 and had made several accommodation reservations to fit the plan.
The blue line represents the route of the NC500. The section we were to tackle on Saturday is enclosed in the dashed ellipse. The arrows indicate direction of travel around the circuit.
Our research warned us that much of the route, while on hard surfaced roads, was only one car wide. But frequent Passing Places are provided and must be used if two cars contest the space simultaneously. We'd become used to this system on Skye, where most of the secondary roads are of this ilk. The research conclusions proved accurate, as did, incidentally, our iPad navigation system which correctly forecast low average speeds. So we set aside all day to travel from Skye, in the bottom left corner of the above map, to Gairloch, the location of our booked B&B accommodation just inside the northern edge of the dashed ellipse.
The weather was brilliant, it was a Saturday, with a continuing favourable forecast. So what did the Scots do? They headed off for an impromptu day or weekend away, in their cars, motorbikes and bicycles, including to places like Applecross, one of the key waypoints in the day's journey.
And one of the most challenging sections came early on: the passage through the Applecross Pass, the only route to the south and east from the tiny but attractive village of Applecross. If you're curious as to its location and terrain it's known to Google.
Here, on the way up this impressive, twisty incline, we encountered some of the cyclists, including one towing a small trailer and two people, one male, one female, presumably very compatible, on a tandem. Bicycle lovers will like this movie. Bicycle haters might get high blood pressure watching it. Movie (one minute only) shot with GoPro blue-tacked onto dashboard.
We descended into Applecross, stopped at the very busy Inn and had our customary soup and bread lunch, outdoors, while gazing across the loch.
Here I am, trying, unsuccessfully, to log on to the Inn's WiFi, which was totally overloaded. Why the South Africa flag? No table numbers, so national flags were used as identifiers.
Movie: driving through Applecross, after lunch.
Looking back at Applecross (low tide) from the other side of the loch, later.
On we went, toward Shieldaig, with the route mostly the same condition as before, width for one car only. Shieldaig was unexpectedly picturesque, and definitely a nice stopover place with several eating and accommodation options. When doing my time and space calculations for this route I concluded that we had to remove Shieldaig as a stopover this day otherwise we'd never get around in the time available.
Shieldaig's small harbour is dominated by this attractive island.
Here we encountered one of those "if only I'd been close enough with a camera" moments. We were just nibbling our ice creams on the waterfront when I noticed some unusual activity on a pontoon on the edge of the loch. A bride in wedding gown, hand in hand with a man presumably the groom, was standing on the edge of the pontoon. I called Mary's attention to the scene and we both stood agog as the couple clearly went through the "1, 2, 3, JUMP" process before plunging into the loch, fully dressed. We thought that this must be some weird Scottish tradition but a quick Google search showed that this seems to be more widespread. "Maybe next time", said Mary.
And on we went, arriving at our two-night halt location, Gairloch, at about 3:45pm. The weather remained unseasonably and impossibly good, according to the Scots we encountered. This is a lovely location and a tiny village, strung out along the sheltered seafront.
Mary walking down to the local pub for a drink and dinner, Saturday evening. Remember, the sun doesn't set until 10pm-ish.
Seems they were expecting us!
Sitting on the sunny porch of the pub I suddenly realized that there was some solar artistry in the froth of my drink.
Anyway, it's now Sunday evening, the sun is bright and the air warm. We've spent the day by breakfasting handsomely (Muldoanich B&B), chatting with hosts and fellow travellers, taking a boat trip on the loch searching unsuccessfully for cetaceans and basking sharks, and taking a barefoot walk on the sandy beach where four oyster catchers were busily taking advantage of the low tide. The water temperature is 11°C, and it is as clear as the sea at Noosa is normally. Off to another eatery tonight, overlooking the loch. Then heading norther again, tomorrow, to near Cape Wrath.
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Kev Long
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The technical stuff:
Our main iPad is connecting to the Internet mainly through a cellular connection provided (prepaid, 3gb for three months for £16) by the UK "Three" network. On high ground and in town environments this connection has so far proven quite good but, as in Australia, some places lack good coverage so no or poor connection. There are quite a few WiFi options available too although not always advertised. Just ask if you're unsure if available. All except two of our accommodation reservations include free WiFi which is of course the preferred method of transferring large amounts of data but I have been posting these blogs and their images sometimes using only a cellular connection either from inside our accommodation or on the roadside.
Mary's iPhone is operating using an Australian SIM card (Optus prepaid) which is roaming while in the UK and gives us the ability to make phone calls (not cheap) and send and receive SMS. It also uses WiFi, can connect directly to the Internet through the local cellular system (expensive), and use a Personal Hot Spot provided by the iPad (essentially free as the iPad connection is prepaid).
Location:Gairloch,United Kingdom
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